Sprout, Seed, Sprout!

Yep! That's the true story of growing an avocado tree! It takes years of patient waiting. I never had the patience! I don;t think they'd grow well in Ohio anyway. Still it's a fun story for young children. Maybe start them growing peas. Or lettuce! Grows faster and I think that may be all they have patience for! Cute book. I liked the illustrations! I think the book would go great with a gardening program in the spring.

If you have ever planted seeds with your children, then you may have heard these three simple words over and over again: Sprout, Seed, Sprout!

This is the perfect book to read with your child or classroom if you are doing any gardening, or if you want to teach the art of patience. This is also a wonderful book for beginner readers too practice with.

Sprout, Seed, Sprout! by Annika Dunklee and illustrated by Carey Sookocheff is the best book ever to describe exactly how all of us, man, woman, child feel when waiting for an avocado pit to sprout. I absolutely loved this book. I laughed out loud over the impatience felt by the child waiting for roots to show and then the stem. We have all been there, singing to our plants, praising it for growing, shouting words of excitement and encouragement. Also the illustrations are perfect. I love the side-eye the cat gives the other “friends” and of the dad flinging the pit across the room. The slightly muted tones are wonderful. A truer book has never been written.

Sweet little story of a boy, a seed, and learning to wait. I also love the integrated counting 1-2-3 throughout the book. It was perfect to read to both my one year old and almost four year old. It also inspired us to save an avocado seed and see if it will sprout!

Sprout, Seed, Sprout! was so charming! Told in a repetition of threes, and teachingpatience - the child learns to sprout a seeding from an avocado pit. The illustrations are delightful, too!

Simple sweet story about a young boy exuding patience while trying to grow an avocado tree.

This would be an excellent mentor text for the kinder and first grade how-to writing unit. The words are simple, easy to read, and the illustrations are lovely.

Spare rhythmic text shares the story of a boy planting an avocado seed and waiting for it to sprout and grow into a tree.

The rhythm of the text in this is done well to the extent you can pretty much clap to it. Things appear in sets of threes throughout from words to steps of care. The words are fairly easy and that combined with the repetition of some words make this a good pick for just beginning readers. The illustrations of the boy and his cat who are waiting for the avocado to grow are cute and fun and manage to incapsulate the joys and frustrations of waiting for something to happen. The book stops with the avocado just growing into a tree of 3 years and doesn’t wait the further 7+ years required for the tree to produce its own fruit. (That would probably be waiting too long for the young audience and breaks the threes theme of the book, but may be something adults want to know before their eager little ones want to try planting their own avocados.) A cute and sweet intro to agriculture for littles. Recommended for little ones learning to count to three, kids who enjoy rhythmic reads, young horticulturists, and also cat lovers (the cat is a pretty cute companion).

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

OwlKids Books has brought together Annika Dunklee and Carey Sookocheff in the charming new science book Sprout, Seed, Sprout. This little story follows a child and cat as they attempt to make an avocado pit sprout. Using repetitive language, numeracy, and science, OwlKids has created a fabulous book for early years exploration.

In three easy steps, a plant is grown from a seed. It’s the perfect science exploration to bring into your home or classroom. Children will be able to watch as the avocado seed breaks and sprouts roots and again when it breaks and sprouts stem and leaves. It’s an exercise in patience as well and a visual and tangible scientific exploration into the growing process. By repeating the one, two, three throughout the text, children are not only gaining insight into procedural writing but also numeracy.

After reading, I was curious as to whether or not avocado trees could grow here in Canada. Given that most avocados for sale at the grocery store are from Mexico or Chile I questioned whether or not an experiment such as this would be appropriate for our climate. This makes a great question to pose to your children, ask what they think. The answer is yes, an avocado tree will grow, however will not bear fruit as the tree will not flower. Many of us have done the bean seed growing in a paper towel experiment or the grass seed so I love that this book offers a different seed and perpective on new life.

We really love Carey Sookocheff’s work. Her art is so perfect for simple little stories like this. I love how all of her art always features either a dog or a cat in the scenery as backround art or a character in the story. Her art is so perfect for this little story.

What is patience? It is the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed. It is the exercise of restraint in trying situations. It is a virtue, which enables the individual to proceed towards a worthy goal.


A young boy scoops up a popped avocado seed that escapes as dinner is being prepared and decides to try his gardening skills on the large seed. He pokes the seed with toothpicks to support it as he balances it on top of a glass filled with water. His goal is to force the seed to produce roots so he can plant it and eventually have an avocado tree in his back yard. What a worthy cause!

He soon discovers that this is not an easy task as you need plenty of patience after continually watering, exposing the seed to sunshine in a sunny location, committing to repot the fragile seed if it does begins to grow roots and then, oh so carefully, replanting the fragile little seedling outdoors to grow into a tree.

There is a refrain of counting to three that runs throughout the book. It implants in the reader's mind that the boy could be reaching his goal sooner than later. But can you rush such a miraculous happening? You learn that patience is a virtue and you have to let nature take its course as it's totally out of human hands to rush the process.

The soft illustrations instruct the reader exactly how they too can have success at planting a seed. The book cautions the reader to wait and have patience and assures them that all the waiting will be well worth their while. Patience is a virtue, one to strive for. This is a wonderful life lesson to teach little ones. I really like the message that is planted in this book.

This book is charm-personified. Easy-to-read and understand, with to-the-point pictures and text and a spot-on message. I also liked the fact that it showed an entire spectrum of habit, hard work, patience, despair and all results of various stages from seed to a three-year old plant. The colors and natural (uncluttered) environment is pleasing to the eyes. The process of germination, roots, plantation from glass to pot to garden is true. The boy's expectation and discipline comes across as fun.

Absolutely perfect. A keeper. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I did this once - sprouted the avocado seed and planted the tree (although I kept it in a large pot and tried to keep it as a houseplant) - so I totally get the patience that must be had through this process! (Sidenote: my tree survived almost five years, I named him Ralph, and I was heartbroken when he died. LOL). That being said, I loved this book! I liked the theme of simply counting to three during each stage of the tree's growth, loved the theme of the boy learning patience and growing alongside. And I hope that this book encourages families everywhere to try sprouting trees from avocado pits! (Although it is tricky, and I recommend doing multiple seeds at once - I started out with three, but only one ever got the sprout from the top!)

Sprout, Seed, Sprout! Is a great book for young children to learn patience, counting, and reading with repetitive words. The illustrations are beautifully done in soft and calming colors that do not distract the reader. The little boy in the story is wanting to grow an avocado tree. The book takes the reader on a step by step journey to achieve his final goal of a tree.

A cute picture book about a child who works with an avocado seed from seed to plant. Easy words to read, with some repetition.

I loved this story about a boy exploring the world around him. Kids love to get their hands dirty and learn how the world works and this story will encourage kids to think about the food they eat and where it comes from. It naturally leads to science experiments and gardening. The repetitive text will engage the young readers and help them participate in the story making this an exciting read for all.

This is a great book for combining science, math and fun all into one! Repeated counting to 3, planting and waiting for a seed to sprout align to pre-school and kindergarten learning requirements. The cat adds irresistible character. I would definitely use this book as a classroom read-aloud! My 3 year old who is interested in planting seeds AND is a big fan of cats enjoyed this book very much.